Your Next Best Friend Might Be A Raccoon

Animal's cognition is fascinating. Scientists showed how intelligent could be dolphins, elephants or octopus... Each animal has its own way to be smart.

Once upon a time, I met a bunch of raccoon.

Little Raccoon Art Print by Amy Hamilton

I decided to use them for labs experiment. However, the tiny adorable bandits were always trying to escape from their cage and steal things. So I decided to test them. I challenged raccoons, dogs and children together.

They had to recognize which of the three light bulbs was going to turn on after a brief delay during which I tried to distract them. Dogs were able to do so with a delay of 5 minutes raccoons only 25 seconds, the raccoons were able to do so while not even looking at the light bulbs, something only the children were also capable of.

I was really surprised! Raccoons could run around during the delay and claw at their cages, while dogs had to keep their bodies pointed toward the correct light bulb. (extracts from experiments conducted by Walter Hunter at the University of Chicago included 22 rats, two dogs, four raccoons and five children, from Oct. 1910 until April 1912).

Scientists show raccoons had a truly sense of touch and curiosity...

“Scientists have reported that elephants grieve their dead, monkeys perceive injustice and cockatoos like to dance to the music of the Backstreet Boys.” Hal Herzog

But raccoons are not the only smart animals from the Rich Coast. Baboons, elephants and parrots would surprise more than one.

“One day, in the midst of this, I'm testing him with a tray of three, four and six blocks of different colors, and I ask, "What color three?" He replies, "Five." At first, I was puzzled: there was no set of five on the tray. We repeat this interaction several times, and he consistently says, "Five." Finally, in frustration, I ask, "OK, what color five?" He says "none"! Not only had he transferred the use of "none" from a same-different task, where "none" was the response if nothing about two objects was indeed "same" or "different," to the absence of a numerical set, but he had also figured out how to manipulate me into asking him the question he wanted to answer!”

(Irene Pepperberg is associate research professor at Brandeis University).

Birds are far from being silly; don’t they invent the most sophisticated melodies? Bird’s song is elegant and inspired Mozart and other great music masters. And the funny part is that the bird with the best songs gets the girl!

Elephants have a huge memory and have capabilities in negotiations, dolphins can help fishermen, octopus can resolve complex problems etc…

So the animal’s world is far from being destined to stillness. Their universe is a bottomless pit of knowledge and especially in a country like Costa Rica where their diversity is preserved like diamonds...

Irene Pepperberg and her parrot, Alex.